Mailboxes damaged during snow removal

City staff was setting up temporary mailboxes Wednesday along Walker’s Line in north Burlington after several were knocked over during snow removal the past week.

These were in addition to the ones placed along the same stretch of road north of No. 2 Sideroad Monday afternoon.

A total of six to seven temporary mailboxes are needed in the area until permanent ones are installed, according to Jeff Black, manager of field services with the city’s roads and parks maintenance department.

While it isn’t clear if the boxes were struck by a snowplow or pulled out by the weight of the snow being pushed, the city is investigating the issue further, Black said.

“We are not taking the incident lightly,” he said. “Because it is an operator on behalf of the contractor on behalf of the city, we’re not really in a position to reprimand, but we’ve certainly been in contact with the supervisor for the contracting company.

“We’re going to have a debrief over the next few days to talk about several issues around the storm and this would be one issue included in that discussion.”

Black didn’t have an estimate of the damage Wednesday morning, but said he did not expect it to be significant.

He said due to the large volume of snow in the area, temporary mailboxes are being used. As weather improves, permanent mailboxes will be installed.

“Depending on the shape of the old ones, yes (new ones could be installed),” Black said. “Sometimes people have specialized mailboxes and if they want that one back up, we’ll work with them to get what they want back in place.”

He said money is built into the city’s snow removal budget to cover related damage, such as broken mailboxes and ripped-up sod.

Black said the city received a small number of calls over the holiday season from residents reporting damage from snow removal.

Issues caused by snow clearing have been low the past few years, partly due to smaller snowfall totals, Black said.

Recent winter weather patterns may be one reason for the past week’s damages, he added.

“We haven’t got a lot of snow over the past couple of years, so it is conceivable the operators are less familiar with the routes than if they had done it numerous times over the last few years,” he said.

A concerned resident, who did not want to be named, told the Post earlier this week the knocked over mailboxes have upset the Walker’s Line neighbourhood north of No. 2 Sideroad.

The resident, whose mailbox is currently missing, said she is concerned about how much the incident is going to cost the city.

“As taxpayers, we are paying for this,” she said. “I don’t know how many thousands of dollars is now being spent to fix this.”